Utah Off-Road Trails

An excellent addition to Thompson Hole, Tidwell Draw offers a more clear view of the Swell's uprising and a different 4x4 challenge while traveling out to the Hole. The trail is the same difficulty, but the challenges are more dirt with a mix of rock. You also drive through the cottonwood trees in the large Tidwell Draw. The trail ends at the brushy, dry Tidwell Draw and the always-flowing San Rafael River. There was no river access and no camping found along this route.

As the early settlers crossed this desolate landscape, they marked their way, leaving behind a trail marker for others to follow. Old Spanish Trail is the original route used by these weary travelers. This small section follows that original trail before it treks through Cottonwood Wash. The trail is loose and soft dirt but was once a graded road in areas. BE CAUTIOUS because there are deadly blind washouts. One crossing over a washout is not advised. Bypassing around the crumbling "bridge" will prevent a collapse. Camping is in the wide open on the dirt, where it can be very windy.

D2761 is a rocky, sandy, remote, dead-end 4x4 trail across a scenic desert landscape. Unique balance rocks and hoodoos add to the vast panoramas that stretch for miles in all directions. Watch for pronghorn and big horn sheep that thrive in this pristine, remote environment. The trail cuts straight across the scrub brush, following a sandy two-track with long sections of bumpy sandstone, mild vertical ledges, and gradual descents. Airing down tire pressure will aid with traction in the loose sand and over the endless bumps. Low-range 4x4 may be needed numerous times, and high clearance and durable offroad tires are required. The rocky step ledges are 10-14" tall and must be driven in both directions. There are no campsites along this route or down in Bull Bottom. Abundant camping is available along Ten Mile Point.

Ruin Park Road is a great connector trail if you plan on making a multi-day overlanding trip in or out of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. This easy trail offers several good campsites and no real challenges. The road is mostly comprised of packed dirt with sections of large rock slabs and pockets of sand. The scenery along this trail is stunning, with great views of the Henry Mountains and into the Maze District, another amazing offroad destination in Canyonlands. If the name didn't give it away, rumor has it there are Anasazi Ruins along the way, which true explorers and adventurers will have a fun time trying to find them all. As with any native history, take only photos and leave only tracks.

Rhodes Canyon is an easy but bumpy forest service road leading from Highway 35 to the end of Soapstone Creek. Any vehicle with high clearance can handle this trail, as the small rocky patches are nothing more than a few inches tall. Although the trail is mainly contained within the Ashley and Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests, camping is fairly limited. There are only a handful of good preexisting dispersed sites with man-made fire rings, and none of them are much larger than 3-4 vehicles in size.

Rustlers Spur is the main out-and-back trail connecting all four of the Rustler network of trails. The 2-mile sandy service road leads to an overlook of the Canyonlands and a couple of rocky campfire rings for tent campers. The trail is hard-pack sand that is passable in 2WD in dry conditions. The trail connects with the more challenging 4x4 trail Rustlers Loop, leading to the Needles Overlook.

Augar Road is considered the alternate viewpoint for the popular Crystal Geyser but from across the river. The trail is a semi-maintained 3.3-mile gravel road leading down to a large camping spot along the shore of the Green River. The trail is home to the area's gravel pit. Expect heavy equipment on the road. Along the route, there are large, wide-open dirt spaces where campers have set up in the past. The camping at the end is pretty level and more sheltered from the high winds that often rip across this region. All your camping supplies and other services can be found in Green River, Utah.

The first and main road to the Rustler area trails leads to a subdued, overlook camping area. The easy sand road travels 3.4 miles to the turn-around camping area but is less rewarding than the Rustlers Spur trail. A vehicle can set up a tent or two in two small areas, but it would be tight and intrusive when traffic passes through for a look. The maintained road to the overlook is easy with packed sand and can be busy during the day. Whether you're there for a quick look or a few days, you'll leave with many memories and photos. Look for Horsehead Rock off in the distance.

Neversweat Canyon is a truly unique Utah rock-crawling experience that isn't well-known or run by full-size vehicles. The pock-marked greenish sandstone narrow slot canyon section is almost surreal. You must choose your line through the entire canyon, over and around boulders, picking the best line for your vehicle, one rock at a time. The canyon is very challenging in stock vehicles. Modified 4x4s with extra ground clearance, skid plates, and durable 33-inch tires are recommended for this challenging route. Count on harsh pin-striping and potential body damage. The route follows the wash for the entire canyon. Motorcycles still use the grassy by-passes, which are now reclaimed and overgrown, therefore reduced to single-track. There's no camping within the canyon, but it is available on many of the easier trails in the area.

Traveling east to west, and crisscrossing many of the most popular routes along Sand Mountain, such as Chain Reaction, Triple 7, Double Sammy, and Joint Effort, Dead Broke is a trail that delivers a nonstop series of steep climbs, sharp ledges, and off-camber drops carved into the red slickrock. This is not a trail for the faint of heart. Expect constant vertical walls, deep cracks, and tall waterfalls where careful spotting, throttle finesse, and lockers are an absolute requirement. The line choices are tight and technical, and often very tippy. Dead Broke rewards the challenge with jaw-dropping Sand Hollow State Park views, unique sandstone formations, and the kind of obstacles that make Sand Mountain famous. The trail ends just before reaching Sand Dune Way by tackling the Baby Lionsback obstacle, where users must traverse a narrow, blind climb and then drop off the other side of the rock feature in the same blind fashion. This trail is best for experienced drivers who want to test themselves on technical terrain. Two lockers, rock sliders, and at least 35" tires are recommended for this trail.

About Sand Mountain

Sand Mountain is an extremely unique parcel of public land. Designated as an Open OHV Area, riders are free to make their own trails. Due to this, many of the long-established named trail routes have several variations that can take easier or more challenging routes through the intended trail. The GPX track for this trail helps you navigate the area, but various lines, bypasses, and additional obstacles may exist along the way. Riders are encouraged to stay on existing trails and not unnecessarily drive over or destroy vegetation.

Fees

Riding on Sand Mountain is entirely free. However, there are multiple entry/exit points for the area, including "the tunnel," which connects Sand Hollow State Park to the open OHV area. Any entry into the boundaries of Sand Hollow State Park requires a Utah State Park Pass.

Requirements

When operating on Sand Mountain, users must attach an orange or red safety flag to the vehicle, rising at least 8 feet off the ground.

The Slaughter Flats region south of Moab is nestled in the foothills of the Manti-La Sal Mountains. The 4254 National Forest trail crosses sprawling meadows with stunning views of the snow peaked mountains. The camping is limited to a couple of sites, but what excellent campsites they are. Reaching this trail via Slaughter Flats 78 creates a scenic and historic tour of one of the lesser-known areas around Moab, Utah. The area trails are ideal for stock-type 4x4s with high clearance and a driver with a sense of adventure.

As the name suggests, this is another way to reach Dog Hollow Reservoir. Although that may not be your end goal, this trail is pretty exciting in its own way. From the start, you are treated with views over the western side of the San Rafael Swell. Once you start down into the wash, you will be treated with a few minor obstacles until you must exit the wash. Over the years this exit changes, so much so that previous users abandoned hopes of continuing on and returned the way they began. This has left the northern end of the trail almost invisible. For those people able to exit the wash, you can head north to other access trails for the Swell. If you are just looking for a little dirt, be sure to make it to the descent before the wash for the most scenic views!

This short but highly scenic and challenging spur off the Hell Dive Canyon trail follows a ridge out to an overlook of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It is entirely on state land (partly SITLA and partly the state park), so it may not be shown on BLM travel maps but it is a legal route. The difficulty is similar to the rest of the Hell Dive Canyon trail, with a mixture of sand and slickrock with a few decent size ledge obstacles that would probably be too hard for a stock 4x4. Since the trail goes downhill on the way in, returning out is more challenging. There are excellent views of Coral Pink Sand Dunes from multiple viewpoints along the trail, with the best viewpoint near the end, looking directly down on the tallest dune in the park. There are no established campsites.

D1167 is a short, dead-end spur road off Mineral Bottom that leads to a couple of campsites at the cliff edge overlooking Mineral Canyon. Any vehicle can easily travel the road. The trail surface is primarily sand with sections of flat slickrock. The first campsite is large and wide open, with plenty of level space on top of the slickrock accommodating several tents and vehicles. Against another canyon area, the second campsite is again large and open, but has more uneven ground, making it harder to support ground tents. Rooftop tents are a great option at the second campsite.

Chaffin Geyser, named after the ranch that occupied the location for years, is another area geyser created by man when core drilling. A colorful small hole typically erupts every 2-4 hours during spring and summer. Pooling water around the mouth indicates an eminent eruption. The pressurized water shoots out of the hole to over 30 feet in the air. The geyser area also has old rusted cars and other remnants from the ranch, adding unique contrast to this colorful landscape.

The road leading to the geyser area is well-maintained gravel and sand. Once past the geyser camping and parking area, the trail becomes more difficult, with very soft sand requiring a 4x4. Near the end of the track is a large rock butte with camping nearby. At the very end, there is a campsite for one with privacy and brushy access to the river.

Branching off of Fossil Point trail, Dry Lake Wash winds its way through rutted sandy washes to the banks of the mighty Green River. Very few trails lead down to clear access to the river like this one. Views of the buttes along the trail and across the river are colorfully scenic and unobstructed by the typical thick desert brush lining the river. The trail is mainly soft sand with deep cross ruts from rainstorms. You'll need high-clearance, four-wheel-drive and durable tires to reach the river bank.  Please follow the gpx track closely to find the cattle gate. Camping was limited to a couple of spots in the rocks of the first wash or the wide-open desert. Because of the potential for flash flooding, camping along the river is not advised.

Blackburn Draw is an excellent alternative to the typical gravel roads crisscrossing the San Rafael Desert in central Utah. The trail crosses over a barren and rugged landscape on a mix of soft sand and jagged rocks. Vehicles should have durable offroad tires, high clearance, and four-wheel drive to safely navigate the steep hill on the route. Traveling east is downhill. The area is a wide-open desert with little protection from the wind or sun.

Dropping into the trailhead along the San Rafael River, you're immediately in this unique trail's brushy and grassy flood plain. The trail's early section offers easy access to charming shady campsites under the cottonwoods thriving along the banks of the San Rafael. Later, the route climbs to a river rock and dirt mesa, built by millennia of shifting river flow. The plateau offers sprawling views of the colorful buttes, eventually dead-ending above the Green River. The trail's end is sagebrush and blowing sand, leaving little room to set up camp. The views of the river are serene and different from others found along Lower San Rafael Road. The trail is soft sand before turning into rocks to climb up the mesa. 4x4 and high clearance are required to access camping along the early portions of the route.

Lower Wedge is simply the trail with the most camping in the area. This easy dirt road winds through the trees to several free and eight improved sites that charge a fee. The campsites range from large open sites for RVs and groups to small intimate single tent camps with beautiful views of the nearby canyons. The trail ends at a large turn-around with a canyon view with Cedar Mountain as a backdrop. Early in the trail at campsite 5, there are vault toilets for the area campers. The most challenging part is the blind corners around the trees. Please be sure to use caution and take it slow.